Vladimir Sagal-Sagalowitz
1969-1898
Vladimir Sagal-Sagalowitz was born in in Vitebsk (Russia) in 1898. Pogroms forced his family to migrate to Switzerland in 1916. He studied art in Germany, moving to France in 1933. When the Second World War broke, Sagal joined the French army, from which he was demobilized after France's defeat. But when Germany declared war on Russia in June 1941, Sagal was interned at Saint-Sulpice-la-Pointe near Toulouse. While in this camp he painted portraits of his fellow inmates. In 1943 he managed to escape and reach Switzerland. His works from the period of his internment are included in the art collection of Beit Lohamei Haghetaot (the Ghetto Fighters' House Museum).
(Dr Pnina Rosenberg)
References
L'Internement des juifs sous Vichy. Centre de Documentation Juive Contemporaine, Paris, 1996.
Miriam Novitch. Spiritual Resistance – 120 Drawings from Concentration Camps and Ghettos 1940-1945. The Commune of Milan, Milan, 1979.
Signed and dated (in French), lower right: juillet 1941 Sagal [July 1941 Sagal]. Inscribed (in French), lower right: Camp de concentration, St. Sulpice [Concentration camp, St. Sulpice]
© Beit Lohamei Haghetaot
Museum Number 2016.
Inscribed, lower right: Camp St. Sulpice. Signed and dated (in French), lower right: 1941 Juillet, Sagal [1941 July, Sagal]
© Beit Lohamei Haghetaot
Museum Number 3502.